The Family Guide to Digital Freedom

What is the reason for a book of this kind on (amongst other things) Free Software? Why write specifically for parents? Are you against Free Software?

Understanding how software impacts all human lives is essential today: nobody should ignore it. Unfortunately, most of the people who have the right skills and ideas on how digital formats and software should be used in society, seem to ignore how the real world works. All too often, they seem to start from the illusion that everybody should be a programmer and love it.

Most real people, instead, simply ignore software and want to know as little as possible, possibly nothing, about it. There is no way to change this fact and, most probably, no really pressing need to do so. If everybody programmed, life would stop.

People like R. M. Stallman, L. Lessig and E. Moglen say a lot of right things, but so far their message has failed to reach parents, or almost all non-programmers for that matter. The proof? Try to find their books, or any mention of their ideas, in the parenting or education sections of any library. They are not recommended by housekeeping or parenting magazines. Even if an average parent or teacher bought or borrowed any of the current (excellent) books on Free Software for beginners, almost surely he or she would not understand why one should ever bother to go past the cover. This is the problem that the Family Guide wants to solve. In other words, it is not a book for Hackers, not directly, at least. The Family Guide is the one software-related book that every Hacker will want to buy not for themselves, but for their (grand) parents, partner, non-geek friends, teachers...

The Family Guide To Digital Freedom doesn't look at software and its impact on freedom as a programmer or a lawyer does. The average person who uses a computer one hour per week to play some 3-D game or write the Parish newsletter could not care less (assuming he or she understands the statement) about source code, and is certainly entitled to be that way.

The Family Guide acknowledges this: it arrives at Free Software and other issues almost incidentally, starting from much more familiar things. Its approach is that Free Software, but above all Free formats and computer protocols are just a means to guarantee some things that no citizen can ignore: equal opportunities, free speech, good education...

Free as in Freedom... Communication, at last!

In this context (the only one which matters to non-programmers) there is no need to force everybody to use all the same kind of programs... to be all free! With a few important exceptions, as long as every citizen is free to ignore what software other people or the Government are using... because no real harm can come from it anymore, everything is fine.

Consequently, while the Family Guide does introduce Free Software, it encourages parents and teachers to use whatever software they like, including proprietary products, as long as they do not tolerate, at any level, non-Free Standards and File Formats, because that is something which (by restricting communication and future access to documents) would really hurt their freedom and that of all other citizens.

While it would probably seem heretical to several traditional FOSS advocates, this approach can really help Free as in Freedom software to survive, remain relevant and (in the medium/long term) be adopted with much less effort than other methods. To know more about this, please stay tuned on Digifreedom or read the Free SW Manifest for all of us or the 7 Things we're tired to hear from SW Hackers.

Perhaps the moderate position is the most radical of all; that is, if you want to get something done that works for everybody. (Doc Searls, The Radical Middle)